April's Amazing Adventures in Fiction

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Lady of Winterfell said:
Well since last posting I have finished Majipoor Chronicles. Not as good as Lord Valentine's Castle, but definately entertaining. I think my favorite story was 'The Thief of Ni-Moya'. I look forward to the next book in this series when I get a chance to pick it up.
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Fret not, they get better having read the complete series some while back. This is my favourite work by Silverberg and as a Science Fantasy not far below Wolfe's Book Of The New Sun, fabulous stuff!

@Clovis-Man: I liked this book quite a lot, not as good as his Majipoor but entertaining all the same. When I met up with Silverberg at Worldcon in Japan '07 he signed it for me, so it holds a special place...:)

Ae35Unit: Never read GRRM huh?...This guy is an excellent example of someone who is a master storyteller across multiple Genres. You realise he's got a wide range of SF and Horror incl. the classic Vampires on the Mississippi river Fevere Dream. An excellent author I have no hesitation in recommending!

Grimaward: Collected stories of Zealazny, lucky you! I've got one of the classic Zealazny collections in The Doors Of His Face, The Lamps Of His Mouth. A true master.

N1: Kearney handles Gemmell with one hand behind his back from what I've read.....Check out his earlier Ships series and Sea Beggars. Excellent stuff.

Smiling Weirwood: Huh? who are you? OH..Yeh I think your name may ring a bell...;)

Phew!...never knew catching up was such hard work....;)
 
GOLLUM said:
Fret not, they get better having read the complete series some while back. This is my favourite work by Silverberg and as a Science Fantasy not far below Wolfe's Book Of The New Sun, fabulous stuff!

@Clovis-Man: I liked this book quite a lot, not as good as his Majipoor but entertaining all the same. When I met up with Silverberg at Worldcon in Japan '07 he signed it for me, so it holds a special place...:)

Ae35Unit: Never read GRRM huh?...This guy is an excellent example of someone who is a master storyteller across multiple Genres. You realise he's got a wide range of SF and Horror incl. the classic Vampires on the Mississippi river Fevere Dream. An excellent author I have no hesitation in recommending!

Grimaward: Collected stories of Zealazny, lucky you! I've got one of the classic Zealazny collections in The Doors Of His Face, The Lamps Of His Mouth. A true master.

N1: Kearney handles Gemmell with one hand behind his back from what I've read.....Check out his earlier Ships series and Sea Beggars. Excellent stuff.

Smiling Weirwood: Huh? who are you? OH..Yeh I think your name may ring a bell...;)

Phew!...never knew catching up was such hard work....;)
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Paul Kearney is Gemmell like in quality with Sea Beggars, its excellent.

But Monarachies of God are not near the level of the writing,the grim adventure,action,emotions of Sea Beggars. He doesnt do real well the traditional high fantasy techniques of storytelling. The many different characters,different POVs are weakest part of the first Monarchies book.
Plus Kearney needs 20+ quality books to be compared to DG for real imo ;)

Hopefully he can get there.
 
clovis-man said:
I just finished reading Silverberg's The Longest Way Home. Haven't read any of his stuff in years. This one was surprisingly uncomplicated and compelling. A very good "journey"/"coming of age" tale.
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Good to know, thanks! I have so far only read Lord Valentine's Castle and Majipoor Chronicles, but I think I will read some of his other works as well at some point.

GOLLUM said:
Fret not, they get better having read the complete series some while back. This is my favourite work by Silverberg and as a Science Fantasy not far below Wolfe's Book Of The New Sun, fabulous stuff!
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Not at all worried. :) I'm looking forward to Valentine Pontifex, just have to get to the used bookstore. Last time I was there they had 5 copies of it, so I'm sure they still have it.
 
AE35Unit said:
Ah I've never read any G R R Martin and don't really do fantasy so no,I haven't been in there.
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I'd say that I was much the same as you with regard to fantasy for a long time ... I'd read LoTR and a few other fantasy classics but 95+% of what I read was SF.

Then I picked up A Game of Thrones in US paperback, based on a Dave Langford review (i think), and it changed my perception of fantasy forever.

No more brave companions carrying the magic whatsit to the firey forge of blah blah ... instead I found much of what I enjoy in SF - real characters dealing with the, often, brutal realities of change in a logically consistent "universe"

Now about 40% of what I read is quality fantasy (by which I mean: Brust, Bujold, Cook, Erikson, Abercrombie, Gemmell, Lynch, Rothfuss etc.)

You can probably add another 15+% for urban fantasy, although thats mostly pretty simple action oriented stuff that fills a niche of pure escapism without too much thought or effort on my part
 
GOLLUM said:
Never read GRRM huh?...This guy is an excellent example of someone who is a master storyteller across multiple Genres. You realise he's got a wide range of SF and Horror incl. the classic Vampires on the Mississippi river Fevere Dream. An excellent author I have no hesitation in recommending!
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Which of his books would you recommend for someone not keen on launching themselves in to a long series by an author they're never read anything by before?
 
Having a lot of things on my mind and being tired because DST forces me out of bed one hour earlier, I am still at the beginning of Singularity Sky, only 36 pages in.
 
Well, if you like Sci-Fi more then you could start with his Tuf Voyaging book. Its actually a collection of short stories about the same man, but its very good. I also recommend picking up his Rretrospective, or as its called here in America, Dreamsongs. That one is fairly huge and pricey, so get it from the library.
 
the smiling weirwood said:
...but its very good. I also recommend picking up his Rretrospective, or as its called here in America, Dreamsongs. That one is fairly huge and pricey, so get it from the library.
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I've read Book Two of this (which includes The Hedge Knight); it was excellent. I'm about to read Book One.
 
@Conn Reasonable point but as you've discovered yourself Kearney is excellent and IMO a better writer than Gemmel. Mind you Mr. DG is very good, no argument there.

@Nikkitta: As everyone is saying Dreamsongs is an outstanding retrospective, perhaps the best I've come across (although I'll have to compare that with Wolfe's newly released one). Yes it is expensive and I've got the original HB in the one book but the library may have it or as you can now get it as a 2 volume PB edn. may look into that instead. Of course, that's going to provide you with more than just a taste, so for less financial pain I would suggest his classic Vampire novel Fevre Dream (think: Stephen King meets Mark Twain) on the mighty Mississippi river. It showcases GRRM's excellence as a storyteller and widely considered amongst the best of this sub-genre along with Matheson's I Am Legend. If you don't like horror check out the wonderful Hunter's Run (co-authored) or Armageddon Rag or of course for the longer unfinished series you can't go past Song Of Ice and Fire. Hope this helps a little. He's also got a series called Wildcards but that's the only series I've not followed but understand it's very good and I've had a taste in what I've seen in Dreamsongs.

@Harpo: See how you go with this. People tend to be polarized with this series but I've always found it one of the best I've read. He's currently completing the final chronicles of covenant after a long hiatus. Donaldson is another favourite of mine.

Cheers all.
 
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GOLLUM said:
Ae35Unit: Never read GRRM huh?...This guy is an excellent example of someone who is a master storyteller across multiple Genres. You realise he's got a wide range of SF and Horror incl. the classic Vampires on the Mississippi river Fevere Dream. An excellent author I have no hesitation in recommending!
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Well i have read a book by Harry Harrison and George R R Martin called Lifeship,but it was no keeper.
 
In some ways Fevre Dream, written back in 1974, could be Martin's single greatest work. Certainly in terms of stand-alones. I've got 2 copies from memory, one in the Fantasy Masterwork series and a copy I won right here!...:cool:
 
GOLLUM said:
In some ways Fevre Dream, written back in 1974, could be Martin's single greatest work. Certainly in terms of stand-alones. I've got 2 copies from memory, one in the Fantasy Masterwork series and a copy I won right here!...:cool:
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Yea i read the synopsis on Wiki,Bram Stoker meets Mark Twain. Funnily enough I've yet to read any of their works either! Want to read Dracula some day and some others but I'm just so into SF that little else gets a look in!
 
GOLLUM said:
As everyone is saying Dreamsongs is an outstanding retrospective, perhaps the best I've come across (although I'll have to compare that with Wolfe's newly released one). Yes it is expensive and I've got the original HB in the one book but the library may have it or as you can now get it as a 2 volume PB edn. may look into that instead. Of course, that's going to provide you with more than just a taste, so for less financial pain I would suggest his classic Vampire novel Fevre Dream (think: Stephen King meets Mark Twain) on the mighty Mississippi river. It showcases GRRM's excellence as a storyteller and widely considered amongst the best of this sub-genre along with Matheson's I Am Legend.
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I like horror and vampire stories, so I think I'll start out with Fevre Dream and see if I like it.
 
I have started reading The Hill of Dreams by Arthur Machen.
 
AE35Unit said:
Well i have read a book by Harry Harrison and George R R Martin called Lifeship,but it was no keeper.
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Actually, THE LIFESHIP was written by Harry Harrison and Gordon R. Dickson.:eek:

Started reading SHOWCASE PRESENTS SGT. ROCK VOLUME ONE. Reprints from the late 1950s through the early 1960s of Sgt. Rock stories appearing in OUR ARMY AT WAR. Love this stuff!
 
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